Powered by .id (informed decisions) for City of Merri-bek
.id community is an evidence base for over 250 local government areas in Australia and New Zealand, helping you make informed decisions.
LEARN MORE ABOUT .idIn the City of Merri-bek in 2021, the largest religious group was Western (Roman) Catholic (22.9% of all people), while 41.0% of people had no religion and 5.4% did not answer the question on religion.
The City of Merri-bek's religion statistics provide an indicator of cultural identity and ethnicity when observed in conjunction with other key variables. Religion data reveal the major concentrations of religions as well as revealing the proportion of people with no religious affiliation. There are a number of reasons for different religious compositions across areas including the country of birth and ethnic background of the population, the age of the population (belief in religion is generally stronger, the older the population) and changes in values and belief systems.
The City of Merri-bek's religion statistics should be analysed in conjunction with other ethnicity statistics such as Country of Birth data and Language Spoken data to assist in identifying specific cultural and ethnic groups.
Please note: Due to changes in ABS rules around perturbation and additivity of data to protect the confidentiality of individuals, counts of individual religion groups and totals derived from them may differ slightly from those published by the ABS.
Q:
Derived from the Census question:
'What is the person's religion?'
| Religion - Summary | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Merri-bek - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2006 | Change | ||||
| Religion totals | Number | % | Oak Park % | Number | % | Oak Park % | 2006 to 2021 |
| Christian total | 62,912 | 36.7 | 43.9 | 82,139 | 60.5 | 67.3 | -19,227 |
| Non Christian total | 27,875 | 16.3 | 16.7 | 15,862 | 11.7 | 8.5 | +12,013 |
| Non-classifiable religious belief | 1,181 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1,309 | 1.0 | 0.6 | -128 |
| No Religion/secular beliefs | 70,202 | 41.0 | 33.9 | 23,267 | 17.1 | 15.6 | +46,935 |
| Not stated | 9,171 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 13,183 | 9.7 | 8.0 | -4,012 |
| Total Population | 171,341 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 135,760 | 100.0 | 100.0 | +35,581 |
| Religion - Ranked by size | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Merri-bek - Total persons (Usual residence) | 2021 | 2006 | Change | ||||
| Religion | Number | % | Oak Park % | Number | % | Oak Park % | 2006 to 2021 |
| Western (Roman) Catholic | 39,225 | 22.9 | 27.9 | 49,446 | 36.4 | 37.9 | -10,221 |
| Islam | 16,748 | 9.8 | 6.5 | 10,621 | 7.8 | 4.5 | +6,127 |
| Greek Orthodox | 9,335 | 5.4 | 2.9 | 10,656 | 7.8 | 3.5 | -1,321 |
| Hinduism | 6,191 | 3.6 | 6.6 | 1,585 | 1.2 | 1.2 | +4,606 |
| Anglican | 4,585 | 2.7 | 4.1 | 9,205 | 6.8 | 11.3 | -4,620 |
| Buddhism | 3,514 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 2,707 | 2.0 | 2.1 | +807 |
| Christian,nfd | 2,374 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 1,177 | 0.9 | 1.1 | +1,197 |
| Uniting Church | 1,532 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 3,301 | 2.4 | 4.5 | -1,769 |
| Presbyterian and Reformed | 815 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1,887 | 1.4 | 2.3 | -1,072 |
| Baptist | 743 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1,032 | 0.8 | 1.6 | -289 |
Show all (38 entries)
Dominant groups
Analysis of the religious affiliation of the population of the City of Merri-bek in 2021 compared to Oak Park shows that there was a lower proportion of people who professed a religion and a higher proportion who stated they had no religion.
Overall, 53.0% of the population nominated a religion, and 41.0% said they had no religion, compared with 60.6% and 33.9% respectively for Oak Park.
The largest single religion in the City of Merri-bek was Western (Roman) Catholic, with 22.9% of the population or 39,225 people as adherents.
The major differences between the religious affiliation for the population of the City of Merri-bek and Oak Park were:
- A larger percentage who nominated Islam (9.8% compared to 6.5%)
- A larger percentage who nominated Greek Orthodox (5.4% compared to 2.9%)
- A smaller percentage who nominated Western (Roman) Catholic (22.9% compared to 27.9%)
- A smaller percentage who nominated Hinduism (3.6% compared to 6.6%)
Emerging groups
The largest changes in the religious affiliation of the population in the City of Merri-bek between 2006 and 2021 were for those who nominated:
- Western (Roman) Catholic (-10,221 persons)
- Islam (+6,127 persons)
- Anglican (-4,620 persons)
- Hinduism (+4,606 persons)
DISCLAIMER: While all due care has been taken to ensure that the content of this website is accurate and current, there may be errors or omissions in it and no legal responsibility is accepted for the information and opinions in this website.
Please view our Privacy Policy, Terms of use and Legal notices. Stats NZ Data and the copyright in the Stats NZ Data remains the property of the Statistics New Zealand.
The copyright in the way .id has modified, transformed or reconfigured the Stats NZ Data as published on this website remains the property of .id. Stats NZ Data can be accessed on the Statistics New Zealand website at www.stats.govt.nz. Unless otherwise specified, content that Stats NZ produce is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. For further information see https://www.stats.govt.nz/about-us/copyright/.